The Jimmy Jamz

In the year 2012, The James challenged himself to read 50 books over the course of one year. 2013 is that year. This is where I talk about the books. 

IMPORTANT: You will not find a ##/10 rating anywhere in these posts. Trying to approach quality on a limited numeric spectrum is like Blu-Ray. Great for show, but ultimately pointless. 

Cloud Atlas, by David Mitchell

Cloud Atlas is something that defies literary conventions. I would normally start this with "X tells the story of..." but such as summation is impossible with Cloud Atlas. It tells six different stories, with different characters set in time periods decades or centuries apart. Each story is told as a form of testimonial. The character has already  gone through the action of their story and is either writing about it, discussing it or using one of many other forms. 

The first story begins in the Pacific Ocean, north of Australia in the 1800s. The second, in Belgium just before WWII. To say much more would ruin surprises, and to say what happens after the 6th story would do more damage still. All of the testifying characters in Cloud Atlas have distinctly different voices and approaches to discussing their story. Language changes, appropriately with the passing of time between stories and every voice feels reel within its historical (and future) context. 

Cloud Atlas is less of continuous story than it is an idea. A testimonial. A context. Each character, each voice and each story ripple outwards in time affecting the story preceding it and following it.

If you think you've figured out Cloud Atlas you're doing it wrong. Cloud Atlas is a journey through time and space. While ambiguity in some stories is relegated to "is he dreaming at the end or not?" or "Is he alive at the end or not?" ambiguity in Cloud Atlas is ambiguity in a broader sense of the concept. 

I suggest Cloud Atlas to anyone looking to expand their contemporary literary horizons. I don't say this lightly: Cloud Atlas is at once majestic and enigmatic. Beautiful and curious. Enthralling and aloof. Read it. 

Some Quotes:

“Our lives are not our own. We are bound to others, past and present, and by each crime and every kindness, we birth our future.”

“Books don't offer real escape, but they can stop a mind scratching itself raw.” 

“My life amounts to no more than one drop in a limitless ocean. Yet what is any ocean, but a multitude of drops?”